Irish government to float stake in Allied Irish Banks

The Irish government has finally pushed the button on its planned €12bn (£10.4bn) float of Allied Irish Banks in what could be one of the biggest initial public offerings in London in recent years.

The Irish state currently owns around 99.9pc of AIB, and plans to float 25pc of its stake on the London and Irish stock exchanges.

AIB traded on both stock exchanges before it was nationalised in 2010, when the Irish government injected €21bn into the bank as a result of the financial crisis.

The IPO, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks, could see AIB valued at just shy of €12bn, according to accounting firm EY’s valuation of the lender at the end of 2016.

This would make it the biggest flotation in London since Glencore’s IPO in 2011, and comes after AIB managed to both reduce the number of non-performing loans in its loan book and generate a profit in each of the past three years.

Much of the turnaround took place under former AIB boss David Duffy, who left the bank in early 2015 to join challenger bank Clydesdale.